Leading or Responding?
Paul Cedar
Leadership means action, not reaction. Yet the action we take must be responsive to the needs around us and to the leading of the Holy Spirit within us.
—Paul Cedar When the phone rang one Sunday afternoon a few years ago, I thought it would be the chairman of the church board, telling me if the congregation in which I had recently candidated had voted me in as their pastor. When I answered the phone, the man at the other end of the line identified himself and said, "Pastor Cedar, I'm chairman of the reorganization committee at the church, and I want to welcome you as our new pastor." "Well, thank you," I said hesitantly. "But the truth is, I haven't accepted the call yet. I haven't even heard the results of the congregational vote." "Of course, I know it isn't official yet," he continued, "but I just wanted to invite you to meet with our committee. As you know, presently some nine separate church boards and committees oversee the life of our church. Frankly, sometimes it's been a struggle to coordinate nine separate boards and committees. Well, when the previous pastor left, he asked the leadership of our church to make a gift to our new pastor—a reorganized church structure. Hence our committee." A few days later, after I accepted the call to that church, I met with the committee and listened to their various suggestions. Before long, it became clear that the committee was deadlocked. All eyes were soon on me. "What it comes down to. Pastor Cedar," said the committee chairman, "is that you're the guy who has to work with the new structure. If you'll just tell us what you want, I believe the rest of the committee will be unanimous in supporting that plan." All around the room voices murmured and heads nodded in agreement. "Brothers," ...
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